The day-long strike at the passenger checkpoints at Cologne Bonn Airport, called for by the Verdi services union, began at midnight last night.

Large parts of the employees of the private security services followed the call and stopped work. The strike was also extended to the personnel and goods control posts. These have also been on strike since four o'clock. Here, too, the walkout should last until midnight. Passenger control in the terminal is currently completely closed. The situation in the terminal is currently quiet, as the airlines had already canceled the majority of flights in advance and passengers have not arrived, the airport informs. During the course of today, only ten departures took place – a total of 24 flights (73 take-offs, 50 landings) had to be cancelled. Originally, 23 passenger flights were scheduled to take place today (123 departures, 60 arrivals).

There had already been warning strikes at several airports throughout Germany in the past few weeks. The background to the strike is the collective bargaining for security forces at airports. So far there had been four rounds of negotiations about their payment. There was no agreement. Most recently, the employer side had submitted a new offer. As a result, only the wages of the upper pay brackets should be increased. In addition to a wage increase, the aviation security forces are also demanding that the same wages be paid for the same work nationwide. In addition, the salaries of young professionals would have to be increased, it is said.